Before unveiling footage from the film on Thursday, filmmaker Terry Gilliam detailed how Ledger, fresh off the success of Brokeback Mountain, had approached him to participate in his no-so-big budget film.

"I said, 'Yes!' Then we went out to see if we could get the money with Heath as our lucky charm...and we couldn't get any money even with Heath," Gilliam said, according to The Wrap. "I kept saying, you do realize in the summer of 2008, The Dark Knight is going to come out and he's going to be a big star...and the Hollywood execs didn't get it."

In the trippy Imaginarium preview, Ledger, plays a mysterious magician named Tony, is shown wearing a long-nosed mask, while talking to passerby with his recognizable voice.

Gilliam described Ledger a young man beyond his years. "Heath was very old. I always thought he was 100 or 200, and there was a wisdom about him," the director said. "He was playful and fearless, and I think he would have been the greatest actor of his [generation], and a couple other generations as well."